Man describes flight from wife

Jon White, whose estranged wife crashed her SUV through a building lobby and rammed him twice last April, wept on the witness stand Friday as he described scrambling for his life.

"I could see that cold, evil expression on her face," he testified about looking over his shoulder as he left his office building, hearing screeching tires and spotting Brenda Christine White racing toward him in the vehicle.

Brenda White, 31, is charged with first-degree felony attempted homicide and second-degree felony criminal mischief. The couple was in the process of a divorce when, Jon said, his wife came to his office around noon, argued with him about mortgage financing, and later tried to run him down. She is out of jail on $500,000 bail. Their two daughters, 4 and 6, currently are living with him and his new wife in Iowa.

Third District Judge Robin Reese will review legal briefs and possibly hold another hearing before deciding whether to bind Brenda over for trial.

Defense attorney Jason Schatz declined outside the courtroom to say whether Jon had been emotionally abusive during the marriage but did say he believes there are circumstances that would support a defense of extreme emotional distress on the part of Brenda.

Jon said his wife first tried to hit him with her vehicle in the parking lot before he ran into the building and the vehicle crashed into the lobby, hitting him twice and leaving him with an injured ankle and a shattered leg that required implantation of a metal plate, and multiple cuts and bruises. He said he pulled himself into a narrow hallway and hid for about 10 minutes in a dark janitor's room, shaking and bleeding. "I was praying to God that I could live."

Earlier, she showed up at his workplace and insisted he sign documents that would leave his name on one of two mortgages, he said. However, Jon White said, that violated an agreement reached during divorce mediation.

Jon White said his refusal to sign made her become "aggressive," she threatened to never let him see the children again, and she repeatedly played a taped song in her vehicle that he referred to as "Angry John."

That was an apparent reference to "Angry Johnny," a tune by the alternative rock group Poe that contains the chorus: "Johnny, Angry Johnny, this is Jezebel in Hell, I wanna kill you, I wanna blow you away." Jon White said Brenda White played the song eight or 10 times and pointed her fingers gun-style at him at least 30 times when it came to the "blow you away" lines.

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